Customer Story
How ISN Improved Fill Rates 50% and Service Levels 30% with Automotive Aftermarket Inventory Planning Software
Overview
Overview
ISN, an automotive aftermarket distributor, implemented Blue Ridge in August 2021 and saw results immediately, improving overstock, fill rates, and service levels each by double digits within the first year, with forecast accuracy sustained near 100% since.
Industry
Automotive
Solutions
Demand Planning
Replenishment
Inventory Optimization / MEIO
The Challenge
Most supply chains are built to react. Blue Ridge is built to anticipate, delivering intelligence that keeps you ahead of demand. See what that looks like for your business.
Solutions
The Solution
"What really intrigued us about Blue Ridge was their whole onboarding, their training, and all of the system improvements that we were to get over time as well."
ISN selected Blue Ridge based on a combination of platform capability and a credible implementation and continuous-improvement roadmap, not on features alone.
"Jeff did a wonderful job working with our private brand team, that is where we actually do our MEIO orders. He really honed in on us and helped with any issues that we had, like if we had overstock at other locations, or even large pack sizes."
MEIO gave ISN's private brand team a systematic way to manage multi-location overstock and pack-size-to-demand mismatches, with LifeLine support embedded directly in the rollout.
"Some systems can be kind of complicated, but Blue Ridge really spells it all out. They make sure that we're trained on everything, and we know exactly what we're doing."
Comprehensive training ensured ISN's full planning and buying team could operate the platform with confidence from day one, a factor Stephanie credits directly for the speed of adoption.
Results
Time saved, inventory freed, confidence gained.
50%
Improvement in fill rates
30%
Improvement in service level goals
The 12 months following go-live moved every key metric in the right direction, and those gains have held.
THe results folLowed:
- Overstock reduced by 30%
- Fill rates improved by 50%
- Service level goals improved by 30%
- Forecast accuracy sustained at approximately 100%
I can load in an event and then next month go back and say, ‘You said we were going to see an uplift of 50%, but we only saw 5%.’ Next year, we’re smarter.”
Results That Arrived Immediately
The post-implementation timeline at ISN doesn't follow the typical pattern of a gradual ramp toward ROI. In the 12 months following go-live, overstock dropped 30%, fill rates improved 50%, service level goals improved 30%, and forecast accuracy stabilized near 100%. Comprehensive training meant the entire planning and buying team adopted the platform with confidence rather than resistance, a factor that accelerated time to value.
Looking ahead
Where LifeLine Made the Difference
The Blue Ridge platform forces you to do the analytics, and that develops your team as problem solvers. If you’re leveraging it the right way and really digging into the alerts, it will change how you run your business.”
ISN's LifeLine consultant, Jeff, has been embedded with the team since day one, supporting process rollouts and new initiatives as they come up. The most specific example of that partnership is ISN's private brand team, where MEIO-driven ordering happens. Managing multi-location inventory across private brand SKUs introduces real complexity: overstock building at one location while another runs short, and large pack sizes that don't align neatly with actual demand. Jeff's hands-on work with that team turned MEIO from a capability into an operational habit.
Customer Stories
Hear from the businesses making every decision count
“The ERP handles transactions. Blue Ridge handles the intelligence. That's the difference.”
Brad Smith
SVP, Procurement & Sales
Southwest Traders supplies national restaurant chains – Panera, Einstein, Starbucks, Panda Express – from a buying team of nine to eleven working on an AS/400 ERP. Blue Ridge cut order-build time from days to a few hours, held service levels at 99.95% across blue-chip customers, and let the company onboard new brands without adding to the planning team.
99.95%
Service level across national restaurant brands
~18.5
Days on hand
“Blue Ridge has been the most user-friendly, results-driven system that I've seen so far. Our whole planning and buying team absolutely loves it.”
Stephanie Hunn
Senior Manager, Planning
Before Blue Ridge, ISN was struggling to optimize fill rate and inventory turns simultaneously. The team evaluated multiple vendors and chose Blue Ridge for the onboarding, training, and ongoing system improvements baked into the relationship. They went live and saw measurable results from the first operating cycle forward – with the Strategic Success Practice supporting every step.
~99%
Forecast accuracy maintained
50%
Improvement in fill rates over twelve months
“The goal wasn't just to reduce inventory. It was to have what we need, when we need it. That's exactly what Blue Ridge helped us do.”
David Mays
VP of Operations
West Virginia Electric Supply is an electrical distributor running eight branches on the Eclipse ERP. Centralizing inventory and moving to data-led replenishment let the team strip out the dead stock that had quietly accumulated for years – while service to contractors and customers held above 96% and the planning organization shifted from firefighting to forward-looking decisions.
70–80%
Reduction in dead stock
96.3%
Service level to contractors and customers
"Blue Ridge has the best interface and analytics you would need as a professional purchasing buyer"
Thelma Chavez
Director of Operations
Jackson Systems is a six-division HVAC distributor generating roughly $40M in annual revenue. Before Blue Ridge, the planning team reviewed every SKU manually – a process measured in days, not hours. Exception-based planning compressed that work, freed cash from excess stock, and pushed service levels into a range the team had never sustained before.
~$1M
Drop in inventory on hand
98.1%
Service level, up from 88%
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